LILMGOTW – Nature’s Zombie Apocalypse

The concept of this game is somewhat adorable. You play as one of 5 rather gnarly looking critters – the duck, the bear, the elephant, the sloth or the gorilla. You get to dress your critter up in a choice of hats and outfits. Then there’s a great array of really fun weapons to pick from before you start tackling hordes of zombies in some well known European locations.

The game play itself is quite hectic. You have one shared screen, so get a basically top down view of the action. Controlling your character is simple, and aiming etc feels natural. It’s fast paced and there’s constant hordes of zombies to contend with as well as some fun ‘big bosses’. The game play areas are pretty small so you tend to only move between a few spaces (if you can communicate with your team that is), it doesn’t follow the Left 4 Dead pattern of trying to navigate through sprawling maps and gain area control before moving on. I quite like this style of play – you can concentrate on having fun just killing the zombies.

There are some neat features of this game that make it really nice for Local Multiplayer. I love that you can add in new players/controllers even when play has commenced – without any disruption to the game play. As a Brit, I love the replications of some famous areas and the ability to play in them. There is a ‘quick play’ mode that just unlocks everything and let’s you play quickly.

I do find myself somewhat confused with this game – I feel stuck between wanting to take it seriously and wanting to get just get drunk and do stupid things. I think the modes help a bit with this – the fully sandbox, everything unlocked quick play lends itself to a more silly style.

Scores –

Ease of play – 4/5. Can be a bit of confusion about what’s going on at times, but it’s very simple to get started.
Graphics – 4/5. Indie games are obviously never going to replicate the standards of AAA games, but for an indie game the graphics are good.
Social Aspect – 3/5. I feel like the chaos means that everyone feels like they’re carrying the team. It’s a good social experience.
Story Line – 4/5. All humans are dead (or zombies) and the animals have risen up, collected the remaining weapon supplies and are trying to save their planet. Again, like the other indie games, story line is mostly irrelevant – but this one has a cute back story.
Value – 4/5. For the style and depth of game play, I think it’s great value.
Reliability – 5/5. This runs really well – I’ve never had launching problems, controller problems or resolution problems. It’s really reliable.

Overall – LGS – 4/5. Great contender for Local Multiplayer gaming nights! Good fun, easy to play and nicely silly.